Annunciation Convent

The Annunciation Convent of the Rivne diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church stands in the village of Andrusiyiv, in the Hoshcha deanery of the Rivne region^{1, 9}. Its full name, as the decision of the Synod records it, is the convent in honour of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Mother of God of the Rivne diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church¹.

The community took shape before the official decision about it. In the spring of 2016, at the patronal feast, Metropolitan Varfolomiy of Rivne and Ostroh blessed monastic garb for the first sisters of the newly formed house at Andrusiyiv and wished the sisters of what he then called a new outpost of Orthodoxy in the Rivne region the protection of the Mother of God³.

On 20 July 2016 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, having considered the report of Metropolitan Varfolomiy, blessed the establishment of this monastery and the adoption and registration of its statute; the decision was recorded as journal No. 31 of that session^{1, 2}.

That year the Synod established only three houses in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - one men's monastery and two convents. The Andrusiyiv community was one of them: that is how it is set out in the annual report of the Chancellor of the Church for 2016^{4, 5}.

The first monastic tonsure in the history of the house was performed on 6 April 2021, on the eve of the feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Mother of God, at the All-Night Vigil in the main church of the monastery; the rite was performed by Archimandrite Mykhail (Zushchenko), superior of the St Barbara skete of Starokorets⁶. On 5 February 2023 Archbishop Pymen of Rivne and Ostroh tonsured three sisters of the house into the mantle¹⁵.

In that same year, 2021, a copy of the icon of the Most Holy Mother of God called the Andrusiyiv Bread was written specially for the newly formed monastery⁷.

The prototype of this icon, as the diocese's own account of its history relates, appeared in the sixteenth century at the Solovetsky monastery, where Saint Philip, Fedor Kolychev in the world, was under obedience: the hegumen set him to work in the bakery, and there, by that tradition, in 1540 the Mother of God sent him her image⁷. The icon was placed in the bakery beside the oven, and in the house it came to be called the Bread icon, or the Behind-the-Oven icon; the prototype was lost in time, and copies were made from it over the centuries⁷.

Of the Andrusiyiv copy the diocesan press service writes that from its first day in the house it began to show help to people who came to it with sincere prayer⁷.

On 13 October 2023, on the eve of the feast of the Protection, the Andrusiyiv monastery's Bread icon was brought to the church of All Saints of Volhynia in Rivne together with eight other icons of the Mother of God that the diocese calls wonderworking - among them the Pochaiv icon and the images of the houses of Korets, Biliv, Mezhyrichi and Hoshcha⁸.

On 25 December 2022 a house church was consecrated at the monastery: the rite of consecration was performed by Archbishop Pymen of Rivne and Ostroh together with priests of the diocese, and the church was consecrated in honour of Saint Nectarios of Aegina^{9, 10}. In November 2023 the archbishop led the festal Liturgy in that church on the day of its patronal feast¹¹.

One of the churches of the house is consecrated in honour of the icon of the Mother of God called the Queen of All; the icon itself, the diocesan press service reports, was written for the monastery by pilgrims in thanksgiving for healing¹². The same press service writes that the house is known for its healing spring, and that over the time the monastery has existed many people who took the holy water with faith and prayer received healing from various illnesses¹².

In 2023 the Liturgy on the day of the veneration of the Bread icon was led at the house by Archbishop Pymen. After the service the hierarch blessed bread that the sisters had baked specially for the feast, and it was given out to the faithful, while the celebration ended with a procession round the house and a moleben before the church of Saint Nectarios¹³.

In 2025 the Liturgy of that same feast was led by Metropolitan Klyment of Nizhyn and Pryluky and Archbishop Pymen, and the singers included the hierarch's choir Resurrection and the choir of the sisters of the Protection of the Mother of God convent of Hoshcha¹⁴.

Pilgrims come to the house. On 12 August 2024 the priests of the Rivne Northern deanery brought a pilgrimage here on a round of the monasteries of the Rivne region: the sisters told their guests the story of the monastery's founding, let them draw holy water and gave every pilgrim an icon of the Andrusiyiv Bread¹⁶. Earlier in the same year, on 5 June 2024, children of the Sunday school at the church of St George in Korets came to the house, one of three they visited in the Hoshcha district¹⁷.